the 2019 venice istanbul sailing race

Ceramiche Musa is promoting the Venice Istanbul Sailing Race project. The project ideator is Ettore Thermes, CEO of Ceramiche Musa. Ettore was 2nd ine 1986 Windsurfer Class World Championship when he sailed for the Italian Air Force. He currently sails the Finn Class and was candidate for presidency of the Italian Sailing Federation in 2016 with a very controvertial program that gained him the title of “Beppe Grillo della Vela”, the Beppe Grillo of Sailing calling the world known Italian politics protester.

Concept

A world class sailing event for national teams. The race is to be hosted by 7 countries (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece and Turkey) from May 9th to June 17th 2019.

Each national team will enter 3 one design boat and a crew that can be substituted during the course. The event is designed for a maximun of 20 national teams for a total of 60 boats and over 500 sailors at sea.

The race will include eight qualification offshore races for a total of about 1.214 n.m. averaging 152 n.m. per race from country to country, a qualification fleet race in each country, one team sailing qualification race in Montenegro and five days of team sailing finals in Istanbul.

Program

May 9 and 10 – Registration in Venice

May 11– Event opening and party in Venice (Italy)

May 14 – Fleet race in Venice (Italy)

May 15 and 16 – VenicetoPortoroz (Slovenia) 55nm about 11h

May 17 – Rest and party in Portoroz (Slovenia)

May 18 – Fleet race in Portoroz (Slovenia)

May 18 and 19 – PortoroztoSplit (Croatia) 230nm about 46h

May 20 – Restand party in Split (Croatia)

May 21 – Fleet race in Split (Croatia)

May 21 and 22– Splitto Porto Montenegro (Montenegro) 157nm about 32h

May 23 – Rest and party in Porto Montenegro (Montenegro)

May 24 – Team sailing race in Porto Montenegro (Montenegro)

May 25 – Team sailing in Porto Montenegro (Montenegro)

May 26 – Team sailing in Porto Montenegro (Montenegro)

May 27 – Fleet race in Porto Montenegro (Montenegro)

May 27 and 28 – Porto Montenegro toCorfu (Greece) 214nm about 43h

May 29 – Rest and party in Corfu (Greece)

May 30 – Fleet race in Corfu (Greece)

May30 and 31 – CorfutoLoutraki (Greece) 191nm about 38h

June1 – Rest and party in Loutraki (Greece)

June2 – Fleet race in Loutraki (Greece)

June2 – Loutraki toAthens via Corinth (Greece) 35nm (fun race)

June3 – Rest and party in Athens (Greece)

June4 – Fleet race in Athens (Greece)

June4 and 5 – AthenstoChios (Greece) 146nm about 29h

June6 – Rest and party in Chios (Greece)

June7 – Fleet race in Chios (Greece)

June7 and 8 – Chiosto Istanbul (Turkey) 268nm about 54h

June 9 – Rest and party in Istanbul (Turkey)

June 10 to 14 – Team sailingfinals in Istanbul (Turkey)

June 15 – Prizegiving and closingceremony in Istanbul (Turkey)

June 16 and 17 – Extra days and departures (Turkey)

Rankings and rules

The overall ranking will be made adding up three results: the long distance races result, the fleet races result and the team sailing results. Each result will be governed by a specific set of rules.

Once in Istanbul, the top eight teams will competet in the team sailing finals (quarter finals, semi finals and finals) while non finalist teams will separately race in a fleet event to contribute additional results for the overall final ranking.

Each team will be restricted to register crew members of the its own nationality and will have to include women. There will be no limits to substitute crew members during the race.

Up to three teams per nation might enter the event (ITA 1, ITA 2 and ITA 3). Each team will appoint a team captain and he will be responsible to build and organize his crew, boats and racing set up. Teams will be funded by sponsors according to sponsorship guidelines.

The race will be competed by a one design boat. The box rule is to be announced.

Based on the Olympic class rankings, about 49 national teams might eventually be interested to enter the race. Hosting countries will have a green card for one team, the remaining 14 countries will be short listed through an ISAF ranking based calculation (in the event applications are more than 20).